narrative

“The value of a watch is not in being able to tell how much time has passed, but in being aware of the need to make that time count. Moments are bigger than minutes and your watch should tell more than time.”

JORD, a company that creates beautiful modern wooden timepieces, has this quote on their site. A few weeks ago they reached out to me for a collaboration. They generously sent two his-and-her wooden watches for my boyfriend and me, and I was ecstatic to receive them. This company excites me as I see their passion. Their love for what they do and what they create is so apparent, and I really believe they want to create special, meaningful products for their customers. This quote, I think, is captured beautifully in each of their pieces, and I truly understand what they mean by moments being larger than minutes and the importance of not just counting time but making time count.

I’ve been dating the same guy for about a year and a half now, though I prefer to not to think about how much time we’ve been together and instead how much we’ve grown together. Though a year and a half may not seem that long, I feel like we’ve been through a lot. Not every moment being absolutely fantastic, of course. I would be lying if I said that every second was perfect, because let’s face it: relationships are hard. Even the best ones are. And up until recently I don’t think I completely understood that.

I hope this does not offend, but I will admit that I did not see modeling as much of an art. Photography is an art. Painting is an art. Dancing is an art. But modeling? For some reason, it was never the first to cross my mind. However, over the last couple of months, I had the opportunity to work with several wonderful photographers, and it was this that experience changed my perspective. Opened me up to a whole new world. A whole new skill. A whole new passion.

There are three things I realized from wearing a dress that was too short. One. I should really learn how to do laundry properly. Two. The majority of people are too embarrassed about seeing your underwear that they probably won’t tell you that they can see your underwear– an interesting, yet easily observable self-hindering phenomenon deserving of more investigation. And three. Even worse than victim-blaming is the unfortunate tendency reinforced by decades of societal conditioning for victims to feel the need to blame themselves. But let me explain.